MUIRTON PEN, Long Road, Portland — The house Selvin Delroy Titus lived in three years ago was no palace.

“It was a government project house, 18 by 18; it had no bathroom or kitchen but had three bedrooms, a verandah and a sitting room,” he recalls. “They built it, and you pay for it.”

However, one fateful night the structure Titus called home was razed. He lost everything.

“I went out and was coming in after eight and I see the fire and the house destroy. I didn’t get to save anything. This was the 19th of January 2014,” the 65-year-old tells the

Jamaica Observer. “The Ministry of Labour gave me some money at the time and I use it to buy some food, clothes and shoes.

“Someone allowed me to stay with them for about 10 months, and then I came back here to live,” he says.

The here he refers to is a dilapidated zinc house in Muirton Pen, Long Road, Portland.

He sleeps on a bed made from cardboard and does his cooking outside on a coal stove.

The land on which the structure stands was given to him by his father, who died in the 1980s.

According to Titus, sometimes people, including relatives, will give him some food and clothes; however, he tries to make a living from farming.

“I plant bananas, plantain and June plum, which is my largest crop, but sometimes I don’t get anything because the people tek dem and don’t give me anything in return,” he laments.

“Any help I can get, I would be happy and grateful,” he says.

Anyone wishing to assist Titus can contact Pastor Roy Titus (no relation), at 1-876-894-2634.